Tammy Glover of Thorcraft Cobra

Changing up my gear keeps me inspired. That said, I’ve been using my dad’s vintage 1953 Gretsch red sparkle on recordings since the ’90s. Initially it was a three-piece kit with a 16×22 kick, a 6×14 snare, a 10×13 rack tom, and a 16×16 floor tom. The original tom has the Stop Sign logo, and in the ’60s my dad used a punch drill to add a second rack tom. The drums still have the original twin-pad tom mufflers, Gretsch floor tom legs and mounts, and disappearing bass drum spur mounts.

I use a Yamaha Stage Custom live, so there’s consistency on tour if we need to rent local gear. However, lately I’ve also been using a tiny Ludwig Breakbeats by Questlove set for smaller live gigs around Los Angeles with Thorcraft Cobra. Billy Zimmer, my bandmate, and I travel light! The kick drum is small—14×16—but it has a lot of punch.

I’m a big fan of Zildjian cymbals. I use 14″ Mastersound K Custom hi-hats and a 16″ A Custom crash, and I also have two of my dad’s hand-hammered “trans stamp” [vintage] cymbals. One is a 20″ crash and the other is a 22″ ride.

I rely on Remo drumheads. For our latest album, The Distance, I put Coated Ambassador batters on the snare and toms, Clear Ambassadors on the bottoms of the toms, and a Clear Diplomat on the bottom of my snare. For my Gretsch kick, I use a Remo Fiberskyn because it has such a cool, warm sound. I’ve used Remo RemOs Tone Control Rings to quickly take the ring out of my toms and snare, but I’ve also used the Evans Min-EMAD Tom and Snare Dampener, and that works well too. Finally, I’m also a fan of Vic Firth’s Extreme 5A drumsticks with Vic Grip, as well as my DW 5000 kick pedal.

Look for Glover on tour with Thorcraft Cobra in support of its latest album, The Distance, which was recently released on vinyl.